Rabbit-Proof Fence

The setting is Western Australia in the early 1930s, and the movie speaks on the racism and segregation, stated by law decrees lasting till the 70s. There was a true erasing program, in fact the Aboriginal children of mixed caste should be separated from their parents and relocated in settlements to start a new life inside white assimilation facilities. The strong and true story first account was written in 1966 by Molly's daughter, in her book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence and the movie is about three young Aboriginal girls: Molly (14), her sister Daisy (8) and their little cousin Gracie (10), who, segregated in a settlement at Moore River, succeeded in coming back to their village after a long bare feet travel for more than a month and 1500 kilometres across harsh landscapes and deserts, chased by policemen and a native hunter (interpreted by David Gulpilil, the most famous Aboriginal actor of Australian cinema). The rabbit-proof fence is a potent symbol: a dividing line across Western Australia, built by settlers in 1901 to protect themselves from something they introduced to the country in the first place, but also to keep apart white men and natives. In this film, it is a barrier, a strange paradoxical monument, but it is also a point of contact, a thread in the labyrinth, a way home.